Despite the change in Xbox Live's Code of Conduct, it appears Microsoft's banhammer still springs into action at the mention of the word "gay". Unfortunately for one 26-year-old gamer from West Virginia, he lives in a town called Fort Gay. Apparently, that's reason enough for his account to get suspended.

"At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," said 26-year-old Josh Moore.

Of course, it could all have been just a silly oversight with Xbox Live censorship. So he called up customer support to fix his problem. "I figured, I'll explain to them, 'Look in my account. Fort Gay is a real place,'" he narrated. But instead of looking it up and reactivating the account, the representative warned Moore that if he puts "Gay" up into his profile again, his Xbox Live account will be canceled and he'll lost the two-year subscription that he paid in advance.

It got to a point where even Fort Gay mayor David Thompson stepped in, but they were simply told that it didn't matter if that's what their town was called, and that "gay" was offensive in any context.

The problem was only resolved when Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live, was called in. Someone took the phrase 'fort gay WV' and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner," he said, explaining why the "gay" word is still taboo on Xbox Live. "Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. ... When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension."

With the problem solved, Josh Moore can goo back to his playing his FPS, while Microsoft promises to better handle similar problems in the future.

CBS [via Kotaku]

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